


Taking After her Dad

by still_lycoris



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 15:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17226320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: It's not Vila's fault that there's a weird bird lose in the ship. Honest.





	Taking After her Dad

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 12dayschristmas

“This is entirely your fault, Vila.”

Vila was so used to hearing that he was able to zone it out entirely. Besides, he was too busy trying to climb into the innards of the ship to comment.

“Come on Shiny! Be a good girl! Come out of there!”

The cheeping noise he received in reply was almost smug. He had a feeling that she’d moved even further back in just to prove a point. He wanted to go further after her – for one thing, his bottom was sticking out into the corridor in a most vulnerable way – but he was a bit nervous that he might actually unplug something. Besides, Shiny was smaller than him. She’d get much further in if he pushed it. Better to try and coax with the food he had and act like it wasn’t too much of a big deal.

“I can’t believe you brought the thing on board.” Tarrant, sounding _particularly_ smug.

“I didn’t know it was an egg!” Vila shouted over his shoulder because he was willing to let Avon tell him off but Tarrant was beyond the pale. “I thought it was a crystal, all right? An expensive crystal worth lots of credits!”

“You didn’t think of getting rid of it when it started to hatch, of course.” Avon, sounding dry.

“I wanted to see what would come out of it! I thought that might be worth _more_ credits”

All right, maybe that was only partially true. Maybe he’d also just wanted to see if it was something friendly. He’d always liked to make friends with little animals, back in the days on Earth. Hideouts were lonely places sometimes. A few little birds that had sneaked in from somewhere, the occasional rat – rats were very bright, if greedy. He’d had more than one that would eat out of his hand and he’d always enjoyed it. 

And Shiny had come out of her crystal egg and she’d been ever such a _little_ thing, all fluff and little cheeps and he’d thought she was fun and something nice to flutter about a bit, so he’d given her a cage and a name and lots of food.

Really, how was he to know that she’d grow strong enough to pull things that were much bigger than her? And smart enough to pick locks? And curious enough to climb down into the ship and start investigating Zen’s wiring?

Actually, he supposed it was rather flattering. Orac _had_ said that Mirror Birds took after the creature that raised them.

“Shiny!” he called again. “You can explore down there _later_ , all right? I’ve got a treat for you, to make up for the big, ugly men scaring you.”

He ignored Tarrant’s indignant splutter. Another cheap, more curious-sounding now. Treats were, after all, always promising. Vila knew that. Sometimes, it was worth getting the treat, even if you got in trouble afterwards.

“Come along now. I’m getting bored and if I go, they’ll send Dayna in and she’s good at killing things, even smart things!”

“Too right!” Dayna called happily from behind him. “I’ve not used the bow and arrow in _ages_.”

A fluttering noise, then Shiny landed on his hand, pecking the food he had there. When Vila carefully back out, holding her, she cocked her head flirtatiously at the crew and sang a few bars of a tune. She knew a serious threat when she heard one and just how to respond.

She was really just like her Dad.


End file.
